Group One is changing its legal domicile from Singapore to the Cayman Islands as it prepares for a potential US Initial Public Offering (IPO). According to an unverified source that wishes to remain anonymous, the company plans to notify the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, the Singaporean regulator, as early as the 29th of August.
Group One Holdings is the company behind mixed martial arts brand ONE Championship, considering a US IPO after exploring a listing via a blank-cheque firm. This consideration comes after the company raised an additional $150 million last December. The article by Bloomberg stated that the new investment puts the company’s valuation at a whopping $1.35 billion.
Guggenheim Investments and Qatar Investment Authority led this latest round of investments. The latter is Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and owns the Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). The country has invested vast amounts of money in order to host this year’s World Cup.
The company, in its expansion, has already signed several UFC veterans, including Eddie Alvarez, Demetrious Johnson, and Sage Northcutt.
For the past two years, ONE Championship has held events exclusively in Singapore in response to the COVID-19 restrictions. But the promotion is set to return to Tokyo in November.
It will be interesting to see whether this leads to ONE Championship putting on more events in the Middle East. To date, there has been just one event there, which took place in Dubai back in 2014.
Events are being broadcasted live in North America on Amazon Prime every month. ONE Championship recently secured a multiyear streaming rights deal with Amazon Prime Video, effective on the 26th of August.
The deal would give the company more reason to shift its focus toward the North American Market and opt for a US listing. The agreement calls for Amazon to stream at least 12 events each year.
In a statement by ONE Championship vice president Rich Franklin, he stated, “ They have 200 million subscribers. This is going to open up the U.S. and Canadian audience for us coming to the U.S., so this is Phase 1.” Additionally, he further added that “They’re the home of ‘Thursday Night [Football],’ so this was a no-brainer for us.”
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